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Comment by floatingatoll | Hacker News Reader

Another vector of harm to consider —

Keep in mind that “vapor” is used to disguise that, in all cases whether nicotine or pot or etc, people are heating up a substance to its smoke point and inhaling that smoke. They use “vapor” because it sounds like “water vapor” - which is harmless - but it’s definitely not that.

Marijuana cartridges use marijuana oil or MCT oil as a base, for example. Nicotine uses glycol or other substances.

We have very little data on consuming glycol and/or MCT oil smoke. It’s possible that it clogs up the lungs in a way that takes hours to heal per inhalation, and so we’re simply seeing smoke inhalation deaths as we would from an oil factory burning for weeks or something.

(We have limited data on marijuana extract smoke - cold-processed oil is a new-ish innovation, compared to resin which is high in impurities and not easy to consume in significant quantities like marijuana oil apparently is.)

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> Keep in mind that “vapor” is used to disguise that, in all cases whether nicotine or pot or etc, people are heating up a substance to its smoke point and inhaling that smoke. They use “vapor” because it sounds like “water vapor” - which is harmless - but it’s definitely not that.

This is not true. It's producing an aerosol, partially by condensation of vapor produced by heating the glycerine and propylene glycol mixture to its boiling point.

It isn't combusting, at least not when everything is working the way that it should, and so is not properly a "smoke".

There are also “coils” that vibrate to create vapour which happens at room temperature.

This is interesting. Do you know what this technology is called?

I also wonder whether it's more efficient in terms of battery use.

It's an ultrasonic vaporizer. Below is a link talking about it.

https://youtu.be/aKhPj7uFD0Y

>Do you know what this technology is called?

Ultrasonic atomization. It's used widely in manufacturing for applying thin-film coatings, because it provides a very consistent and controllable spray of very fine droplets. The technology has been applied to vaping by Usonicig, but it's not hugely popular - most people prefer warm vapour.

wow, this is the first i’ve heard of that for vapes. any recommended reading?

I'm not a vape guy, but as far as I'm aware no combustion reaction is occurring, essentially it's boiling the substance at a far lower temperature than it would burn.

Now, whether glycol and such are good things to inhale is another question but I haven't seen any studies pointing to significant issues with these directly, so I'm hesitant to jump the the conclusion suggested here.

The conclusion is “we should consider whether propylene glycol inhalation can lead to disorders”, not “we know whether it does”.

Propylene glycol has been used in asthma inhalers and nebulizers since the 1950s.

So, probably safe...

> Propylene glycol has been used in asthma inhalers

Do you have evidence for that claim? Because as an asthmatic, I've never encountered an inhaler that contained PG. Apparently it can be used in nebulisers, but unlike inhalers and e-cigs, a nebuliser isn't being used every day.

My understanding is that unless the vape pen is malfunctioning, it should be burning anything.

Your heating it to the point it boils and creates vapor. Not to point it burns.

This is incorrect. The solvent is boiled, not burned.

Corrections below, thanks all! Glad this will be considered by a few people that replied, even if I fail at the precise sciences of it :(

From another source on a vaping story, for those who want to follow the thread of concern even regardless of my bad understanding:

> One exam, though, picked up something unusual — evidence of abnormal immune cells in his lungs — generally associated with a rare, potentially deadly pneumonia seen in older people who accidentally inhale droplets from oil-based laxatives like mineral oil.